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The Pandora Directive
Background Like all Tex Murphy games, The Pandora Directive takes place in post-World War III San Francisco in April 2043. After the devastating events of WWIII, many major cities have been rebuilt (as is the case with New San Francisco), though certain areas still remain as they were before the war (as in Old San Francisco). WWIII also left another mark on the world: the formation of two classes of citizens. Specifically, the Mutants and the Norms. After the events of Under a Killing Moon, tensions between the two groups have begun to diminish. The end to the Crusade for Genetic Purity was a turning point in the relations between Mutants and "Norms". Tex still lives on Chandler Ave., which recently underwent a city-funded cleanup. The events of WWIII still left the planet with no ozone layer, and to protect their citizens many countries adopted a time reversal. Instead of sleeping at night, and being awake in the day, humans have become nocturnal, in a manner of speaking. Though Tex lives in what is considered a Mutant area of town, he himself is a "Norm".In The Pandora Directive, Tex Murphy (Chris Jones) is hired by Gordon Fitzpatrick (Kevin McCarthy) to find his friend, Thomas Malloy (John Agar). Tex quickly discovers that Fitzpatrick is not the only one who is looking for Malloy and finds himself dragged into a dangerous situation. With few he can trust, Tex must try and unravel the mystery surrounding Malloy, and along the way he'll learn the devastating truth behind the greatest government conspiracy of all time. The game has a large cast of characters ranging from the deranged to deadly. Several well-known actors starred, including Barry Corbin and Tanya Roberts. Storyline The story begins with a man in black infiltrating a womans room before strangling her.Tex is at Louie's with Chelsee and is confronted by Gordon Fitzpatrick who seeks Tex's help to search for Thomas Malloy , after one his leads Sandra Collins, a college lab researcher who was working with Malloy ends up dead. After searching around town and sorting out some errands and finding a chisel in the sewers Tex heads to Chelsees newstand where he arranges to meet Chelsee Bando for dinner at her place but after investigating Malloy's room at The Ritz, he is knocked unconscious by the man in black who had killed Sandra. After investigating the room he is left with a letter written in Mayan ,another from a man named David Wright inviting Malloy to a cabin in Oreogan,a business card form the ACME Warehouse a pawn receipt from Rook's Pawnshop,some photos(one of a small girl named Reagan,another of Malloy with a Llama), a scarf and a book about the "Airport of the Gods".Upon leaving he realises he has been knocked out for 16 hours and slept through their dinner date .He goes to Rook to cash in the receipt from Malloy's room at the Ritz to get a black dagger.His investigations about the scarf lead him to a young blonde girl who was with Malloy whose name was Emily from Louie who in turn directs him to Clint who may be able to translate the letter in Yucatan as he spent time at the area.At the Electronics Shop Tex is held at gunpoint by the new owner and has is credit card shot and forced to pay $1,230(including $623 in interest) for late payments.He buys the Visual Analyzer Apparatus and heads to Clints Coca Cobana at Coit Tower.Clint is unable to translate the letter only have a amateur grasp of the language but does reveal the owner of the scarf as a dancer at the Fuschia Flamingo.He reveals that the owner Gus Leach who owns the club came in with her and dropped a key which he gives to Murphy.After meeting the owner of the club through a back door he returns the scarf he determines that Emily does indeed work there.Tex then returns to Chelsee's apartment to get to the Fuchsia Flamingo after showing her his injuries from the night before .The player can choose to allow her to stay at home and thus think things over(seen as canon) or come to the Fuschia Flamingo with him on a date.If he brings her to the club Chelsee notices him spying on Emily and gets furious when he reveals that he brought her there to "kill two birds with one stone" she then slaps and leaves.Either way he confronts Emily reveals she has been stalked by a strange individual who sent a letter she tore into pieces (which when reconstructed says "I AM WATCHING YOU.I TAKE PICTURES.BE AFRAID" with a black arrow on the bottom) and is confronted by Gus Leach(If Tex is really inconsiderate the argument is more intense but she doesnt slap him he enters the dressing room drunk and Gus the manager will prevent him from reaching Emily later on).The next day Chelsee arrives at his apartment to reveal she is going to Arizona to find herself after pushing off Tex's advances who then visits Mac Malden who upon looking at the note says it is related to the "Black Arrow Killer" which is dangerous terriotory and has moved his operations to San Fransisco.He also hands Tex the Key to Krusty's Funhouse.At Wrights cabin he realises that something is amiss and there finds a CD and blood spattered around the place with a hole in the window.Behind a painting he finds a security keypad for a door.Back at his office he enters the CD into his laptop to solve a puzzle to get the code to the security door as well as information on the Mayans,their calender,religion,langauge and references to "Outsideres" inside the door he finds a map of the Yucatan Peninsula,and the body of David Wright under a floorboard.He also finds some old film and a projector and views a video of an alien autopsy similar to the fake one from the Roswell incident of the 1950's. Tex soon realises it may be for real considering the fact that the aliens in the video are barely alive and still moving(and the ones he has seen before include dead aliens) and that David Wright is now dead because of it.Murphy meets Louie again who explains that the "Black Arrow Killer" case was covered by a Bay City Mirror reporter who he finds out is Lucia Pernell.Investigating Rusty's Funhouse to find the police have already searched the place and the water cooler locked.In an alley next to the ACME warehouse Tex meets Crazy Gary and after giving him some scotch from the Slice of Heaven Pizza Parlour, Tex gets a key he had seen dropped from Malloy to a warehouse belonging to Malloy wherein he finds a tapestry, a photo of the Plains of Nazca and a map of Asia amongst other items. At Rooks he buys a book called "Yucatec Made Easy" as well as a business card belonging to Lucia as she interviewed him regarding a series of burgularies in the area.He reads the letter which details about Ollie Edwards journey to Yucatan Peninsula where he was given a phrase(translated as 4 AHAW .8 KUMAK'U .BLACK SUN SKY. 4 GODS. DIVINE BIRD.MOUNTAIN) from a native who brought him to a holy place never seen by anyone in centuries.He also mentions to send a box to his Sak Pakall Hotel in California.Back at his office Tex arranges a meeting with Lucia Pernell at Louies after calling her number.She explains to Murphy that the real Black Arrow Killer was caught in Arizona and apparently killed himself in jail after being visited by two NSA agents and that his confession was covered up by the NSA to the media.This was before the recent murder of Sandra Collins with the same modus operandi and reveals that back in Arizona there was also P.I. who asked alot of questions who eventually ended up dead of an apparent suicide. On his way home he sees a man in black on Rusty's Funhouse roof. After making his way there he finds a link to AUTOTEC, a company where Sandra worked and someone called "D.H." After getting a security card to the company from Sandra's house Tex heads to to AUTOTEC to find out the identity of the new Black Arrow Killer: Dag Horton. In Dag's office he finds photos of Sandra(as well as a locket belonging to her) and surveillance photos of Emily,a key to the water tower on Rusty's Funhouse and that Reverend Gary is also linked to him.Tex learns that not only has he been paid to keep an eye out for packages sent to the Fuchsia Flamingo for Horton, he also tells Murphy that he may be on the roof of Rusty's Funhouse as he has seen someone up there moments ago.Tex goes there and he spies Horton attacking Emily through spying equipment inside the water tower.Tex returns to the Fuschia Flamingo and depending on your actions earlier and your speed Tex will either save Emily or she will die wherein Gus prevents him from entering her room.After chasing Horton around the rooftops, Tex corners the killer back on Rusty's Funhouse and scuffles with him resulting in Horton falling to his death and dropping a device on the roof while a black speeder drives away from the club.The Next day he recounts the events to Mac Moulden who mentions a box.When a brunette woman gets Tex off the hook Moulden reveals that the NSA are now involved and will be looking for him and are interested in the box.Later,Tex finds out that Chelsee has arrives at Arizona via a videomessage and a call from Lucia reveals shell run a search on Dag Horton. Returning to the Fuchsia Flamingo Tex talks to Emily (provided he has saved her) who reveals she discarded the brown envelope that Malloy sent to her covering a box that was stolen from her and that was given to her from Malloy as a gift as they became married a year ago .Gus says he threw the envelope wrapper covering the box in a thrash bin outside.After collecting it he determines there may be a way to find Malloy with it.Using the finds a postel code on it using the visual analyser indicating the post office that sent it.The tracking device found on the roof of the Funhouse leads Tex to a large metal puzzle box in the sewers next to a mine he deactivates.After returning to his apartment with the box, he is confronted by Jackson Cross, a NSA agent who reveals that Dag Horton, a fellow agent was allegedly posing as the Black Arrow Killer to clamp down on drugs trafficking in the Fuchsia Flamingo. Tex lets him in on what he knows with regards to Emily and the box which is then taken into the AUTOTEC headquarters. After being dropped off at his office, Tex is meets the Brunette woman Regan Madsen who reveals herself to be Malloy's daughter and that she too is in possession of a puzzle box and that there are others floating around and they have items that worth a large fortune. She leaves after giving Tex her phone number. Using the data on the envelope wrapper, Tex was able to trace the clues to his next location, the Garden House apartments where Malloy is staying. Here he finds a CD, an anagram book from the Lucia Pernell newspaper and Cosmic Connection magazine. After attempting to access the CD at his office, Tex heads back to the Garden House where he finds that Malloy has headed to the Waterfront Warehouse. Here Tex meets Malloy who reveals that he and Fitzpatrick worked in Roswell in the 1980's examining the wreckage and technology from the alien spacecraft that crashed landed there. These include examining both hieroglyphics and anti-hydrogen particles which the government used as weapons against the middle east in the early 1990s that led to World War III resulting in the contamination and damage to the biosphere. At the end of their conversation, two NSA agents appear and after he kills one the other kills Malloy in a standoff that releases gasoline from a barrel. Tex sets fire to the remaining barrels of gasoline with a cigarette to escape the agents. Tex meets up with Fitzpatrick and informs him of Malloy' s death. Tex presses Fitzpatrick about the work done at Roswell and the events after World War III in China. It is revealed that Malloy was deciphering the hieroglyphs on the wreckage but was unable to translate one of them: the black sun. Furthermore it is revealed that he deciphered that a second ship had arrived on Earth some time ago. Both of these were common motifs on the hieroglyphs. Fitzpatrick fears that the government intends on finding the ship in order to secure the technology also reveals that not only he has a box himself but that Tex should also retrieve the one he lost so they can continue their research. Tex admits he is more likely to trust Fitzpatrick than Regan. Back at the Waterfront Warehouse Tex found notes from Malloy about Item 186 and that he sent out exactly five boxes to his friends and family. Furthermore in the safe, he finds a diagram relating to a containment chamber as well as key for his closet in the Garden House. This leads to a book called “Messages From Outer Space” by JI Thelwitt with attempts at an anagram inside, a photo of The Gate To the Sun as well as a notebook in a briefcase.Tex meets Regan at the Imperial Hotel where he breaks the bad news to her after she details her childhood and hands over the box in exchange for her notebook. She deciphers the notebook to the initials O.E, E.W, and A.E. and debates with Tex on what to do with the information and the contents of the boxes saying it could make them wealthy. Tex then contacts Lucia who asks to find the files on the NSA Project Euphoria. In return she gets the creators of anagrams in the newspaper to find out all possible arrangements of the book title “Messages From Outer Space" using the tapestry he found earlier on Regan's box is opened containing an artifact. Officer Mac Maiden leads Tex to the coroner's room to examine the body of Dag Horton where he steals his wallet and ID Card. He sneaks into AUTOTECH using the ID Card and retrieves the Euphoria Files, Emily' s box and some cash and leaves the building. With a little puzzle solving, Tex opens the box and finds a module and a slide of Item #186. After ringing Fitzpatrick, he realizes that the initials from the notebook refer to Archie Ellis, editor of the Cosmic Connection who is contacted by Tex. A distorted image and voice awaits Tex asking about the author of "There are Messages from Space", the alien landing strips at Mexico and the structure at Tia Juana (JI Thelwitt's Plains of Nazca and Gate of the Sun).He is then led to Archie Ellis, an expert in UFO’s and writer for the Cosmic Connection who had met and recorded an interview with Malloy. Archie shows Tex one half of his interview. He revealed that one of several egg shaped capsules was opened in Roswell and the entity inside killed everyone there. Archie also reveals that he was given a box too but it was stolen alongside the other half of the interview. Archie then reveals that according to Malloy there were two power cells that were collected from the ship:one was stored at the base and the other was beoken down after experimented on,that J.I. Thelwitt is the pen name and anagram of Elijah Dewitt and Gordon was in contact with him recently . After talking to Fitzpatrick, Tex is given the co-ordinates to Roswell and finds out that the box sent to Archie was possibly a fake as a diversion for the NSA. Regan calls and teases Tex with the proposition for sex.On his way to Roswell, Tex realises that Archie might be in danger from the NSA after noticing a black speeder outside his place (If the player returns to Archie and warns him of his suspicions, Archie will leave town for a while. Otherwise he will be killed by Jackson Cross). After finding his way into the complex Tex is knocked out by gas overnight.Investigating further he finds a video left by an officer detailing that some gaseous entity was released and has killed everyone in the vicinity Tex decides he must put the entity back in the containment field before it kills him. After succeeding in trapping the alien he gets access to the level 2 rooms of the complex. Collecting classified documents and pictures he uses a toy spaceship to navigate the air vents to collect more items including a keycard to level 3. Once there, he finds the wreckage of the spaceship and eventually the power cell #186. With that in hand, he leaves Roswell for his office. The next day he receives a message first from Archie in Bermuda with some bikini clad women thanking Tex for saving his life and that hes going to visit the Bermuda Triangle out of curiosity .Another message from Chelsee is to inform Tex she will return to San Fransisco and he also receives the anagram results from Lucia. He deduces the result “Merge the Four Rare Cases To See Maps” as the the password for the CD from the Garden House and discovers that the final box has been sent to Elijah Witt whom Tex contacted using a tracer to get his address. Witt agrees to meet Tex at the Imperial Lounge but Tex uses this as means to infiltrate Witt’s apartment at Vancouver British Columbia. After deactivating the alarm, Tex recovers and heads back to the Garden House to open the last of the metal boxes. After combining all pieces of the Pandora Device, Tex brings together Fitzpatrick, Regan and Elijah and is given the power source to the device.A hologram of Malloy reveals that he was able to decipher the hieroglyphics confirming the existence of a secondary “colonizing ship” with the possibility of holding more anti-hydrogen particles (the black sun symbol). Furthermore it is revealed via a map that the ship is located in the Yucatan Peninsula. Regan joins Tex and Fitzpatrick takes separate route to the ship's location the next day. That night Regan attempts to seduce Tex at his apartment (his decision whether to sleep with her affects the ending) The next day Tex arrives at a Mayan temple ruins which he navigates a series of traps and puzzles before landing in a chamber with Reagan and debate the fate of the technology. They both break apart a statue activating a stone elevator to find themselves outside the spaceship. When Jackson Cross appears and reveals that he and and Regan have been working together all along. Regan attempts to goad Tex into selling the technology for money to escape her life of drudgery. Cross explains that he originally wanted to kill off Tex but was convinced by Regan to allow Tex to collect all the boxes for him and that she could bring him to their side. Fitzpatrick then appears and promises to give them the ship. Depending on the players actions throughout the game there are nine possible endings that are divided into Mission Street, Lombard Street and Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. Endings Mission Street: Date with Chelsee Everyone boards the ship.Fitzpatrick traps Reagan and Jackson Cross in the Power Cell Room, but not before Cross fatally wounds Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick urges Tex to activate the anti-hydrogen bomb inside and reveals to Tex that he will be able to fly the ship away from earth as he can control it as he reveals that his father was in fact one of the aliens who impregnated his mother.Tex sets the bomb off with a button denoted by the black sun, and leaves the ship before it takes off. Elijah Witt appears The dinner at Chelsee's place finally comes to pass, she is hesitant to believe his story or indeed any of his stories but she rewards Tex with a somewhat unorthodox striptease as a cowgirl. To get this you did all the right things with Chelsee: take her offer to dinner at her house, apologize and show the bump on your body after being knocked out by Dag Horton,decided not to take her to the Fuschia Flamingo and fought off Regan's attempts to seduce you. You also managed to keep on the right side of most of the Chandler St. denizens ie. saving Emily and Archie.This is considered canon as Archie and Emily appear in Tesla Effect and the lasso appears in the Chelsee shrine. Mission Street: Holodate The same events occur but Chelsee reveals that she isn’t ready to take their relationship to the next level and that she is going on a date with a Clark Gable hologram suggesting Tex do the same. He does the same with Jayne Mansfield and Anna Nicole Smith holograms. He comments that things could be worse off. To get this you must do all the right things with Chelsee like before and fought off Regan's attempts to seduce you but did not keep on the right side of the denizens of Chandler St. ie. allow Emily to die. Lombard: Holodate Same sequence of events on the ship and 'holodate' ending, but with a different variation on the dialogue. To get this ending messed up with Chelsee being a schmuck with her, but were nice enough to the rest of the cast. Lombard: Tears of a Clown Everyone boards the ship. Regan and Jackson Cross get themselves trapped in the Power Cell Room, but Cross shoots Tex in the leg first. Fitzpatrick allows Tex to limp off the ship, then sets the controls himself and destroys the ship.Tex is picked up by Elijah Witt to a hospital and winds up as a disillusioned clown! To get this ending you got it wrong with Chelsee, but were nice enough to most other people and also slept with Regan. Boulavard: Tears Of a Clown When Fitzpatrick arrives Cross asks Tex to prove his loyalty by killing him.He refuses and they enter the spaceship where the same events as earlier carry out with Tex being shot in the leg. He escapes and decides to become a clown. To get this ending you must blow it with Chelsee, mess up generally early on (Allow Emily to die), but pull yourself together in the end by helping some people and refusing Regan's offer for sex. Boulavard: Tex’s Achilles Heel When Cross asks Tex to shoot Fitzpatrick, he chooses to drop the gun. Everyone boards the ship. Fitzpatrick traps Cross and Regan in the Power Cell Room, but Cross shoots Tex in the leg before the door closes. There is no time for Tex to get off the ship before Fitzpatrick destroys it. To get this ending you must blow it with Chelsee and save Emily. Boulavard:Carte Blanche When given the option to shoot Fitzpatrick Tex decides to shoot Cross instead. The gun is revealed to be empty and Cross kills Tex where he stands. Boulavard: The Lowest of the Low Tex to shoot Fitzpatrick under orders from Cross only to find out the gun is empty. Everyone boards the ship. Fitzpatrick traps Cross, Regan and Tex in the Power Cell Room. Tex helps them to escape, but it's too late as they've left the Earth's atmosphere and Fitzpatrick destroys the ship with everyone aboard. The now dead Tex ponders his actions and briefly converse with God. Gameplay The Pandora Directive is the second game to make use of Under a Killing Moon's engine, and featured real-time 3D graphics. Players explore environments from a first-person perspective and can click to examine objects or interact using a variety of verbs. In addition to verb interaction, players can gather, use, and combine items to solve a variety of puzzles, and must also solve self-contained logic puzzles. Character interaction consists of two primary modes: asking characters about a universal list of topics available to the player, and branching dialog trees. These dialog trees were unusual at the time in that they did not display Tex's full response, but rather a short and sometimes humorous description, a convention later popularized by Bioware. The Pandora Directive was one of the first adventure games to feature branching narratives and multiple endings. The player could take Tex down "Mission Street" where he takes the high road and wins the love of his long time crush, Chelsee Bando. Mission Street has three possible endings. Down "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", Tex is a selfish and cynical jerk worrying only about the big payoff. Boulevard of Broken Dreams leads to four possible endings. If the player chooses neither path, Tex will go down "Lombard Street". On this path, he's not really a nice guy, but he's not mean either. Lombard Street leads to two possible endings, both of which are common to Mission Street. The "best" Mission Street ending is achieved when the player has taken the high road every time he was given the choice, and by exactly following two conversation paths earlier in the game. The Pandora Directive provided two difficulty settings, Entertainment and Game Players mode. On Entertainment, hints were available and the player could bypass certain puzzles if the player so chose. Some minor objects and video scenes were available on this setting that were not available on Game Players mode. A total of 1500 points were available on Entertainment mode. On Game Players mode, no hints were available and puzzles could not be bypassed. Bonus points were available to those who solved certain puzzles in an allotted time or within a certain number of moves. In addition to this, extra in game locations and puzzles were available on Game Players mode that weren't available on Entertainment mode, making for a more challenging game playing experience. A total of 4000 points were available on Game Players mode. Like "Under A Killing Moon" it is separated into "Days" and allows players some freedom as to the choice as to when certain events are carried out. Trivia *David Wright is also the name of one of the Artists working on the game. *Emily Sue Patterson sings the original song 'Body and Soul'. *Beside the fireplace in David Wright's cabin where the painting falls. There are the initials BA. These are the initials of Beau Anderson, one of the VR designers. *Tex's guitar is signed by Richie Havens. *The Surgeon General's warning says: "When you smoke you suck" and there is a little sign underneath which says Larsen. Nathan Larsen is one of the Art Director's of the Pandora Directive. Pop culture references *At the beginning of the game, the Black Arrow Killer throws a copy of Under a Killing Moon off Sandra Collins' shelf. *In the Fuchsia Flamingo, there is game box of Amazon. *Company names are parodied: Sony = Sany, Camel cigarettes = Llama cigarettes. Llama advertisement also has a rhyme written beside (Hey kids,/Don't Let Llama Clause down,/start smoking his cigs/before he hits town!) *If you look at the painting at the bottom of the stairwell in the Ritz Hotel, Tex will mention Sam and Max, the characters from a LucasArts adventure game and animated television series. *If you look at the orange painting on the wall in Tex's office (to the right of the front door) Tex says, "This alien landscape reminds me of the Old Star Trek episode where they get that distress call, then Captain Kirk meets that beautiful woman, then he and Spock barely escape, then Kirk makes that funny joke right at the end." (which sums up the formula of most Star Trek TOS episodes) *In the lobby of Autotech, there is a magazine with a picture of the Under a Killing Moon box on the front cover. *The alley behind Rook's Pawnshop is marked with spray can. One mark on the left say "No Key" (where Tex found a key in the previous game). The one on the right says "Choco Man" (where Tex found Clint in a dumpster). *At the morgue, Tex can find Pug's head in a jar, having been decapitated by the Chameleon, and his head stuffed in Tex's water cooler. *In the article "Movies and Shakers" from the newspaper from Rook's trashcan it mentions a 91-year-old Bruce Willis working on Die Hard XVII: Still Alive and Kicking in which there is a terrorist plot to take over a Fort Lauderdale retirement community. Also in this article it says that the 1995 film "Waterworld" starring Kevin Costner finally broke even. *In the Electronics Shop there are "Geordi LaForge visors" named after a main character from Star Trek: The Next Generation. *In Storage Room 102 at Roswell there is something that resembles a bowling ball on the shelf which reminds Tex of a Fred Flintstone's bowling ball. *In the Metallurgy Lab at Roswell (accessed via the ventilation shaft) there is a tank in one corner of the room about which Tex says, "I haven't seen tanks like this before, except on Seaquest." *In the Miscellaneous Storage room of the third level of Roswell, there is an object sitting on top of the crate with the striker about which Tex says, "Looks like a leg fell off an Imperial Walker." *When Tex calls Archie Ellis, there is a possible response called "Hobbit Humor". When you select this Tex says "I am Gandalf, Wielder of the Glamdring and Slayer of the Balrog." the left is a shot of Gandalf facing the Balrog in the movie adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring. External links * The Pandora Directive at GOG * The Pandora Directive at Steam Category:Games Category:Pandora Directive